Berry-box



(No Model.)

W. H. MOSER] I v I BERRY BOX. N0. 369,651. Patented Sept. 6, 1887.

a I ll, W 5 Z f /FI I 05 e I. I l 5 K c 'T \c I! f c X C I l5 g E 0 I a iIIIHIVIII WITN g 5 INVENTOR: M g f 6 j BY Mum/w ATTORNEYS.

N. PETERS, PhumLimn n mr. Washington. D. c.

NlTED STATES \VILLTAM HENRY MOSER, OF EAST PORTLAND, OREGON.

BERRY-BOX.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,651, dated September 6, 1887.

Application filed February 12, 1887. Serial No. 227,368.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it know u that I, WILLIAM HENRY MosER, of East Portland, in the county of Multnomah and State of Oregon, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Berry-Boxes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to boxes or crates for holding berries and other fruits or small vegetables, but more particularly to boxes or crates for packing and marketing berries, such as what is known as the Leslie berry-box, or the Hallock berry box or crate, or other like berry boxes or crates made of veneer, as distinguished from like boxes made of paper; but in the construction of such veneer boxes I avoid. the use of all tacks in building or closing the box, as when its body is made up of detached pieces, thereby not only saving the tacks, but the time, labor, and tools necessary in placing and driving the tacks home. To these and other ends I use what is known in paper boxes as a flap or tongue lock for the adjacent parts or ends to be secured, said flap or tongue being formed with a neck and passingthrough a suitably-shaped aperture in the adjacent end or piece of the box; but in using such flap and slotted lock the same is of peculiar construction to adapt it to veneer, as well as to make the look a more perfect onein various respects, and so that (which is impracticable with veneer) no kinking of the cusps of the flap is necessary to enter and secure it in place, substantially as hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming apartofthis specificati0n,in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.-

Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of a berry-box having its body or several sides made of a single piece of veneer, with my improved lock applied to close and secure its meeting or overlapping ends. Fig. 2 is a face view, upon a reduced scale, of the blank,which is represented as broken away in the center, of or from which said body is made; and Fig. 3 is a section, upon an enlarged scale, through the locking-flap portion of the body on the line as m in Fig. 1.

Prior to describing the box as represented (No model.)

in the drawings, I would observe that although only one locking-flap is here shown as apphed to the body, any number of such locking-flaps may be used, either on the body or cover ofthe box where a cover is used, the lock being the same in every case.

A is the body of the box, made of a single piece of veneer, the blank from which it is made being shaped and scored at suitable points-as, for instance, at b b-.-to provide for the bending of it into the required shape of the box, also having incisions, as at c c, for projection through it and support of the bottom d of the box as the body is bent around into shape, likewise having the locking flap or tongue B and aperture O, through which said tongue passes in or at opposite ends of the blank. This shaping, cutting, and scoring of the blank may all be done by machine at one operation.

The tongue B, which, in connection with the apertured portion O, forms thelock, is of bullhead shape-that is, is of larger area on 1ts outer portion than at its inner end, where it forms a neck, e-and is of curved outline, so as to avoid all angles, which are objectionable with veneer. Thus constructed, the tongue is a spring one, which is not liable to split when putting the box together and when in use or locked. Itis or may be all contained within the end of the blank it forms part of. The aperture (J at, or, rather,within, the opposite end of the blank is in the form of a narrow opening of arched or other suitable shape, and, which is important, is of the same length as or not the inner wall or marginal portion, 9, of the aperture, and the tongue is then retained in place and made to perform its office of holding the box together by the marginal portions h h of said tongue and wall or marginal portions iz'of the aperture 0 abutting on or against each other, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, and there will be no liability of any strain from within the box splitting off any part of the tongue. Furthermore, the tongue B springs into place and holds securely without being pushed farther into or through the aperture C than to the position it occupies when the box is complete, and it gives stiffness and stability to the box by confining the veneer body from play or movement in direction of its depth, and from strain on it where it is bent at its angles around the bottom (2 of the box, so that the box in being lifted will keep its shape.

The boxes may be put together at the fac-' tory, or they may be sold to the users in the fiat, and, as no tools are required for putting them together, they may be built up or put together in the field as they are filled.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a veneer berry or fruit box, the withindescribed lock for the adjacent and overlapping ends or portions of the veneer, composed of a bull-headed tongue, B, of curvilinear contour in its one closing end or portion, and an arched aperture, 0, in the adjacent closing end or portion, adapted to receive said tongue within and through it and of a length corresponding to the greatest width of the tongue, as and for the purposes herein set forth.

2. The body A of the box,made of veneerand having scores I) for bending it into shape, con- 

